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2025-06-02: Office of International Students & Scholars Updates: On behalf of Erik Williams. Director, Office of International Students & Scholars

2025-06-02: Office of International Students & Scholars Updates: On behalf of Erik Williams. Director, Office of International Students & Scholars

Created by Marc Miller
Jun 02, 2025

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June 2, 2025

TO:  Campus Community

FR:  Erik Williams. Director, Office of International Students & Scholars

RE:  Office of International Students & Scholars Updates

 

Dear Campus Partners,

As immigration policies continue to evolve at the federal level, the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) is closely monitoring all developments that may affect our international students, scholars, and the broader UCSB community.

We understand that changes in immigration regulations can create uncertainty and prompt questions. Please be assured that OISS is committed to keeping our campus informed. When official updates become available that impact international students, scholars, or university processes, OISS will promptly communicate relevant information to the appropriate campus audiences. We appreciate the care all of our campus partners continue to show for our international community, however, to help OISS manage our increased workload, we request that you refrain from asking for individual updates for large scale policy updates. We are increasingly seeing policy changes that come without details from the federal government and it takes time for us to learn the impact of those changes. Once we have verifiable information to share, we will absolutely send messaging out to campus.

A few of the recent updates that have been announced but at this time lack any details:

  • Pause on visa appointments- Currently the Department of State has paused the ability to make a visa appointment at United States consulates.  Reporting suggests this may last about a week long, however, no definitive timeline has been announced.  We are encouraging students and scholars to continue to check the consulate website to see when appointments may resume. If they currently have an appointment they are urged to maintain that appointment. OISS continues to prioritize new student requests so they have their document required for the visa appointment when they become available.

  • Revocation and denial of visas for certain Chinese nationals- This policy was announced on May 28, 2025 but we have yet to receive details of the implications of this change.  We vaguely know that they are looking at “areas of critical fields” but do not know the scale on which this will be implemented. 

  • Revocation of Harvard's Student & Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification: This is currently on hold pending litigation from Harvard.  The actions taken by the Department of Homeland Security are widely believed to be outside the bounds of regulation.  At this time these actions appear to be focused on Harvard. No other university, including UC Santa Barbara, has reported additional scrutiny related to the SEVP certification.

We have received many inquiries asking what folks can do or how they can support the international community during these uncertain times.  Here are some ideas and suggestions:

  1. Hold support spaces and events for international students. OISS staff resources are increasingly being utilized for compliance and regulatory work, preventing us from providing robust support spaces for our international students and scholars.  We welcome campus departments and organizations to create their own programs or spaces for the international community to gather.  Feel free to invite OISS staff to attend! 

  2. Bookmark the OISS News & Announcements page where we will be posting pertinent messages and updates.  If you miss a communication from us, you can find an archive of them here. 

  3. Get involved in advocacy on behalf of our international community.  NAFSA has a variety of resources on how everyone can advocate at various levels of government.

Despite the challenges before us, OISS remains committed to working with campus to welcome all our international students and scholars to UC Santa Barbara. This is not done in silos, we appreciate your continued partnership in supporting our international community and thank you for your patience as we navigate these ever evolving policies.